A 3D map of the islet routes throughout the healthy human pancreas 1Scientific RepoRts | 5 14634 | DOi 10 1038/srep14634 www nature com/scientificreports A 3D map of the islet routes throughout the he[.]
www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN A 3D map of the islet routes throughout the healthy human pancreas received: 29 June 2015 accepted: 02 September 2015 Published: 29 September 2015 Constantin Ionescu-Tirgoviste1,*, Paul A. Gagniuc1,2,3,4,*, Elvira Gubceac5, Liliana Mardare1, Irinel Popescu6, Simona Dima6 & Manuella Militaru5 Islets of Langerhans are fundamental in understanding diabetes A healthy human pancreas from a donor has been used to asses various islet parameters and their three-dimensional distribution Here we show that islets are spread gradually from the head up to the tail section of the pancreas in the form of contracted or dilated islet routes We also report a particular anatomical structure, namely the cluster of islets Our observations revealed a total of 11 islet clusters which comprise of small islets that surround large blood vessels Additional observations in the peripancreatic adipose tissue have shown lymphoid-like nodes and blood vessels captured in a local inflammatory process Our observations are based on regional slice maps of the pancreas, comprising of 5,423 islets We also devised an index of sphericity which briefly indicates various islet shapes that are dominant throughout the pancreas Islets of Langerhans are directly responsible for maintaining homeostasis Both their size and shape determine the uniqueness of these micro-organs The three-dimensional relationship between islets is crucial in orchestrating the metabolic adjustment However, this relationship is unknown One of the major drawbacks in etiopathogenesis knowledge of different types of diabetes is largely represented by an excessive extrapolation of experimental data obtained in several mouse models1–3 It turned out that this extrapolation was in many respects a disadvantage when the first immuno-therapeutic approaches to type diabetes (T1D) in humans was initiated4 The presence of two glands in the same organ, one with an internal secretion and the other with an external secretion, is more an exception than a rule While the exocrine pancreas has a regular lobular organization, the endocrine pancreas proves to be uniquely heterogeneous, whether we refer to the total number of islets or to their size In previous studies, the total number of islets varied between 3.6 and 14.8 million, and the total islet volume has been reported between 0.5 to 1.3 cm3 5–8 Furthermore, the cellular composition of the islets makes it difficult to accurately calculate the total number of β cells Detailed studies made on the human islets report a proportion of ~60% for β cells and ~30% for α cells, the remainder being divided between δ cells (